Prologue

To begin, I think every story deserves an introduction as to how it all began.

As a child, I have always been fascinated with the yin-yang symbol and the concepts it embodied. As one may predict, any pattern that even slightly resembled the yin-yang would peak my interest (even the basic color combination of black and white). Anyhow, one day (like many others), I came across the widely acclaimed Go manga known as Hikaru no Go.

The funny thing is that the main thing that caught my eye about this series was the fact that the protagonist seemed to have a black and white hair combination (aka yin-yang reminder). Anyone who has watched the actual anime (or looked at the image above) will know that Hikaru (the protagonist) actually has blonde and black hair (and that I’m an idiot because all manga’s are drawn in black and white….).

Regardless, the manga definitely sparked my interest in Go. Even though my brother (who coincidentally at this time started taking the Go culture class at Chinese School) and I attempted to start learning the game at this time, it wouldn’t be until after I entered and graduated college to begin taking another look into it.

It wasn’t until just a month ago when I was watching Criminal Minds (Season 1: Episode - Extreme Aggressor) and saw the linked clip:

For those unaware of my background, anything to do with psychology or philosophy will definitely enter the realm of my intellectual interests. After watching this scene, I decided to look back into one of the few games which has held its original nature for all the years it has been in existence. From that point on, my quest begins.